


Rough Day

by NahaFlowers



Series: Flint is Eleanor's bi dad [2]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Eleanor is vaguely antagonistic towards her bi dad but mostly just wants to know about his sad life, Eleanor: tell me about your sad life so I can feel less sad about my sad life, F/F, Flint is awkward and sad but tries to be supportive, Flint: um...no., Gen, eventually, he will tell her!! it's going to happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 13:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11037288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NahaFlowers/pseuds/NahaFlowers
Summary: Earlier that day, Eleanor had had to decide between betraying her lover and siding with Flint, or betraying her ambitions and siding with Max. Flint and Eleanor have a conversation about her decision. Many things are left unsaid.





	Rough Day

It had been a rough fucking day. Eleanor poured herself a brandy and sat down at her desk, booted feet resting on its wooden surface. She leaned back, sighing, and took a gulp of brandy. A knock came at the door.

“What do you want?” she called, not bothering to get up.

The door swung open and Captain Flint entered the room. He gave her a look that was half-calculating, half-concerned.

“What?” she said, rudely, looking up at him in challenge. Daring him to say something about it.

Flint opened his mouth as if to speak, then swallowed, as if he had thought better of it. He gestured at the chair, asking if he could sit down. Eleanor nodded impatiently, moving her feet off the desk.

She ignored him, glaring determinedly at a page of figures for one of the pirate crews’ prizes. They had agreed what they were to do earlier. She had sided with him. If he had come to talk to her now, it could only be about what had happened with Max. And she would not be the one to start that conversation.

“I can tell you’re not reading that, Eleanor.”

She jumped when he spoke; she hadn’t been expecting him to be the one to break the silence. Flint could be as stubborn as she, and he was staring down at the desk still, almost as if he hadn’t spoken at all.

With an exasperated sigh, she cast the page aside. “Look, just get to the fucking point or get out.”

He looked up at that. “I’m sorry,” he said, immediately, without preamble.

She raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t expected an apology to come so quickly, if at all. Then she shrugged, looking away. “What’s done is done.” The silence from Flint caused her to look up into a gaze that was all-too-knowing. “What?” she said, a little defensively.

Flint shrugged, but continued to look pensive.

“I did what I had to do. Progress always comes with a price and I had to pick a side.”

“And you picked mine,” finished Flint. “Thank you for that.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I picked the side that had the best prospects for Nassau’s future, _my_ future.” She shrugged. “It was nothing personal.”

“It seemed pretty personal to me.” Eleanor glared at him. “Anyway, I’m sorry you had to make that decision. And I’m sorry to be a part of it.”

“Would you have picked differently?” Eleanor asked. She was done pretending she didn’t care about what she’d done, pretending that it was merely a political decision rather than a personal one, and Flint had come here expecting emotion, expecting anger, expecting… _something_. So she was damn well going to give it to him.

Flint opened his mouth to speak, then huffed out a little breath as his brow furrowed in thought. “You did the right thing,” he offered, lamely.

That was not really what she had asked, was it?

“Did I? I made the best decision for me, politically, for our shared goals, and you know I see the bigger picture as well as you do. But the _right thing_? I don’t think that even comes into it.”

Flint sighed. “Maybe not. That was a poor choice of words.” He looked frustrated, as if he wanted to say something else, something comforting, but the words seemed to escape him.

“You can answer me one thing, though,” she said. “If you came here to be helpful and not just to dredge up the events of the day, events I would really rather mostly forget about.” She indicated the brandy on her desk, taking the opportunity to pour herself another generous glass, not offering Flint any.

“Which is what?”

“Would you have picked differently. If you were in my position? If you had to choose between betraying your lover and betraying your ambitions?”

Flint sucked in a breath between his teeth. “I don’t know,” he said, thoughtfully. “Life is usually not that simple.”

“But it was today,” Eleanor pointed out.

Flint’s gaze flickered up to hers then away again. “Yes.”

“Hm,” she said, swallowing a large gulp of brandy.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “Nobody should have to make that kind of decision. It’s not a decision I ever had to make.”

“And if you had?” she said, pressing him, knowing she was pushing her luck, but he had pushed his by even coming to talk to her (although she supposed there wasn’t really much she could do to him).

“In my old life…they were one and the same thing, in many ways. But I would have picked differently.”

Eleanor’s breath hitched. “And now?” she said, looking up at him as if she was lost in the darkness and he was the only one who could guide her to the light.

He held her gaze for a long moment, and for that moment, Eleanor felt like she knew Flint better than anyone else. For that moment, she could see the man he had been before and the man he was now, existing simultaneously in space. Then he blinked and it was if a light went out, and he was back to being just Captain Flint, feared pirate captain of the Caribbean, and her friend and ally.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I still don’t know.”

She nodded, smiling grimly, swallowing her disappointment – at what? The lack of an answer? Or the sensation of being closer to knowing more about this man for a moment and feeling it slip away from her? Then he smiled a tight smile at her and gripped her hand, comfortingly.

“Good night, Eleanor,” he said, then dropped her hand and left quickly.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this a couple of days ago but over the last few days/while typing it up and looking up what actually /happened/ in episode II, I realised what I had written didn't work in canon so I kind of rewrote it. I think it works better now.


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